Entries in ALG
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On June 9, the House of Representatives voted 219-207 in favor of an amendment by Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) to the HUD appropriations bill to "prohibit [HUD from] use of funds to implement, administer, or enforce the proposed rule entitled "Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing".[1]

This action was necessitated by the wholesale assault on local zoning authority in those jurisdictions which have accepted federal community development grants.

Five months later, the rule is now scheduled to go into effect at the end of the year, and the government funding discussions that will dominate the Lame Duck session are the last chance to stop this federal government usurpation of local control over zoning decisions.

"Under the scheme, HUD plans to map every U.S. neighborhood by race and publish "geospatial data" pinpointing racial imbalances. Areas deemed overly segregated will be forced to change their zoning laws to allow construction of subsidized and other affordable housing to bring more low-income minorities into "white suburbs." HUD's maps will be used to select affordable housing sites.

"It's part of an ambitious agenda to eliminate "racial segregation," ZIP code by ZIP code, block by block, through the systematic dismantling of allegedly "exclusionary" building ordinances. In effect, federal bureaucrats will have the power to rezone your neighborhood."

One might ask what HUD's motive is for pushing far outside the envelope in forcing the destruction of local zoning authority? IBD explains it succinctly saying,

"Once HUD creates a national discrimination database and supplies "nationally uniform data" of what it thinks 1,200 communities should look like, it threatens to reshape the demographics of every neighborhood in America. By showing statistical "disparities," the database would render charges and findings of actual discrimination unnecessary.

"This has zero to do with housing discrimination, which has been illegal since 1968. This is about redistribution of resources. It's also about political redistricting, a backdoor attempt by Democrats to gerrymander voting districts in their favor." (emphasis added)

The federal government funding decisions you are facing during this Lame Duck session will directly impact whether hundreds of local communities will find themselves in federal court, wasting taxpayer resources on both sides of the issue.

Please join us in urging appropriators and Leadership to include Rep. Gosar's defund language into any underlying government funding bill that they produce.

Nov. 21, 2014, Fairfax, Va.—Nathan Mehrens, President of Americans for Limited Government today issued the following statement in the wake of President Obama's announced illegal alien amnesty plan:

"Last night's pronouncement by President Barack Obama that he will change our nation's immigration laws with the stroke of his pen sets up a profound constitutional crisis. If Obama is allowed to impose changes in law that Congress has specifically rejected, it sets an irreversible precedent that forever changes the separation of powers between the two branches.

"Congress must immediately return to Washington, D.C., and defund every aspect tonight's announced amnesty. Acquiescence to this constitutional power grab is not an option."

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Americans for Limited Government is a non-partisan, nationwide network committed to advancing free market reforms, private property rights and core American liberties. For more information on ALG please visit our website at www.GetLiberty.org.

Nov. 21, 2014, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Nathan Mehrens today issued the following statement responding to the House lawsuit against executive implementation of Obamacare:

"Boehner's tepid lawsuit response to five years of President Obama's executive actions to willy nilly change the law without Congress sadly demonstrates the profound weakness of his leadership. By the time Boehner's lawsuit winds its way through the court system, Obamacare will have been fully implemented. Is it this kind of pathetic response that encourages Obama to continue his effective dissolution of the separation of powers."

Americans for Limited Government is a non-partisan, nationwide network committed to advancing free market reforms, private property rights and core American liberties. For more information on ALG please visit our website at www.GetLiberty.org.

Nov. 18, 2014, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Nathan Mehrens today issued the following statement disputing President Barack Obama's November 14 claim that the Keystone pipeline is not a "massive jobs bill" for the United States:

"President Obama has consistently discounted his own State Department's finding that 42,100 jobs will be created by the Keystone XL pipeline rationalizing that they are mostly only temporary construction jobs. This elitist argument is an affront to every man and woman who earns their pay in work gloves and boots, devaluing the work of those who build things in America because of the temporary nature of construction projects.

"Obama, the man who sold a stimulus package based upon the false notion that it was going to be used to provide "shovel ready" jobs, now finds himself in the position of arguing that those exact jobs don't count. Yes, construction jobs are temporary, because construction projects get completed. That doesn't mean that those jobs are not valuable, as they give workers employment who then move on to the next project that needs to be built.

"Here's the news flash for the President and his cronies, all jobs are temporary (except government civil service ones). Every private sector employee all the way from the janitor to the CEO is temporary, and this includes the job of President of the United States and all his political minions. To deride the economic value of a project because the jobs it creates are mostly done by blue collar construction workers shows just how far this President has strayed from the Democratic Party's traditional labor employee base."

President Barack Obama: "My hope would be that any reporter who is looking at the facts would take the time to confirm that the most realistic estimates are this might create maybe 2,000 jobs during the construction of the pipeline — which might take a year or two — and then after that we're talking about somewhere between 50 and 100 [chuckles] jobs in a economy of 150 million working people." Interview with The New York Times, July 24, 2013 at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/28/us/politics/interview-with-president-obama.html

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Americans for Limited Government is a non-partisan, nationwide network committed to advancing free market reforms, private property rights and core American liberties. For more information on ALG please visit our website at www.GetLiberty.org.

"The House led by Rep. Bill Cassidy is to be praised for taking the lead on finally approving the Keystone XL pipeline. Americans for Limited Government urges every member to support this common sense legislation and get it moving to the Senate.

"This is just one more example of executive branch discretion run amuck. Where Obama's allegiance to green ideology trumps all considerations of policy that will help lead to North American energy independence. Obama is acting in somebody's interest, it's just not the American people's."

Americans for Limited Government is a non-partisan, nationwide network committed to advancing free market reforms, private property rights and core American liberties. For more information on ALG please visit our website at www.GetLiberty.org.